Biden Wins Big on Ocracoke
In the Democratic presidential primary, Joe Biden won easily with 110 votes (108 on primary day/2 early voting); a not-even-close second was Elizabeth Warren with 57 votes (49 primary/8 early); third place goes to Bernie Sanders with 42 votes (35 primary/7 early), followed by Michael Bloomberg with 33 votes (24 primary/9 early).
"No Preference" took 5th place on primary day with 4 votes, but Amy Klobuchar got 5 votes total (2 primary/3 early) pushing her slightly ahead. Pete Buttigeig earned 3 votes (1primary/2 early). Tulsi Gabbard, still in the race on Super Tuesday, earned 3 Ocracoke votes in the primary; early voters cast one vote each for Tom Steyer and Michael Bennett.
How does that compare overall? Joe Biden also won in Hyde County (with 47% of the vote) and N.C. (42% of vote).
Sanders came in 2nd in the county, followed by Bloomberg, Warren, and the surprisingly popular No Preference.
Three registered Libertarians voted on Ocracoke. They cast one vote each for No Preference, Souraya Faas, and Jacob Hornberger. No Preference also got one vote on the mainland, making him/her the Hyde County pick for Libertarian nominee.
No Preference had a good day picking up 66 vote overall in Hyde County. His/her big loss was in the Green Party presidential primary: only one registered Green voted and it was for the other guy (Howie Hawkins.)
Biden won big, but Republican incumbent Donald Trump had a tremendous win in his primary. He was challenged by Joe Walsh and Bill Weld on the N.C. ballot and defeated them bigly. 36 registered Republicans voted for Trump; Walsh picked up two votes from Ocracoke.
For U.S. Senate, Ocracokers, Hyde Countyites, and North Carolinians all agreed that the match up should be between the incumbent (Republican Thom Tillis) and Democrat Cal Cunningham.
Hyde County voter turnout is considered pretty good for a primary, with 1190 out of 3048 voters casting ballots. That's 39.04%, which is a FAILING grade anywhere except voter turnout. By comparison, 42.51% of voters came out in 2016; however, that primary was consequential for both the Democrats and the Republicans, unlike this year. Twice as many Hyde County Republicans participated in the 2016 primary than in 2020.
For U.S. House of Representatives N.C. District 3, Ocracoke and Hyde County didn't have a choice to vote on in the primary. That contest in November will be between Republican incumbent (and 1st time Congressman) Greg Murphy up against Democratic challenger Darryl Farrow.
The primary was also cancelled for the N.C. House race for Ocracoke's district (N.C. House district 6) Representative Bobby Hanig, the Republican incumbent, will go up against Democrat Tommy Fulcher.
Now for the down-ballot primary election results:
Ocracoke Democrats want to keep Roy Cooper as their governor; he won statewide and will defend his office in November against Republican Dan Forest.
Allen Thomas impressed Ocracoke Dems as a candidate for lieutenant governor, but he lost statewide to Yvonne Lewis Holley. Holley came in 2nd on Ocracoke.
Ocracoke Democrats were aligned with their fellow blue Tarheels in their votes for Beth Wood for state auditor, Jenna Wadsworth for state agriculture commissioner, and Jen Mangrum for state superintendent of schools.
Matt Leatherman and Dimple Ajmera tied for state treasurer candidate, but both lost to Ronnie Chatterji statewide. (I confess I voted for Dimple because her name is adorable and she's a WOC. I'm sure Ronnie and Matt are also respectable choices.)
Marsha Gibbs was running for the Lake Landing seat on the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, and earned the most votes on Ocracoke, but county-wide Thomas Midgette was the winner. Midgette will run against the incumbent commissioner, Republican Earl Pugh, in the general election.
Also running unopposed in the general will be Randal Mathews, who is on the Democratic ticket to fill the Ocracoke seat on the Hyde County BOC when Tom Pahl leaves office.
Find out more NC, Hyde County, and Ocracoke elections results here.
Correction: In an earlier edition of this story, we said that Thomas Midgette would run unopposed. But, in fact, Earl Pugh decided to run for his seat again.
